BR Research met with Naveed Siraj - Country Manager, Intel Pakistan Corporation, Naveed talks about latest trends in computing, Intel's new offering with the Ultrabook and Intel's education program in Pakistan.
BR Research: Tell us about Intel's operations in Pakistan, and how it all started?
Naveed Siraj: We did a market survey in the mid 90s; our senior managers arrived in Pakistan to understand the market dynamics. Demographics in terms of growth potential and opportunities were very favourable. We established our offices in October 1997. If I take you back to the mid 90s there was no formal structure to the IT channel, in a way we were indirectly responsible for creating several job opportunities, by establishing our IT channel of resellers, distributors, system integrators and solution providers.
Ensuring that there are proper selling skills available, every quarter we have technology update sessions of our channel as well as our end consumers, just so we keep our customers and channel abreast of the latest and coolest technology in the market.
Intel has always believed in forging very close relations with its partners, the partnerships that we are really profound of are our international partners such as Microsoft, they also have growth plans and they also see opportunities in the country. What I have observed in the last five years is that international manufacturers have increased their presence in Pakistan around three-folds and they continue to grow.
The industry continues to evolve but I think there is a need for organisations to react faster, we are required to show more agility to align our customers with the international trends.
Geographically given the mass of population there is massive potential, your PC penetration exists in even in your tier-2 and tier-3 cities so there is great potential for growth.
In a lot of cities, IT has still not reached, for example the government's USF program they are providing infrastructure in towns and villages. Infrastructures like 'Brick and Morter' and community centre's which are manned by the local community members.
BRR: What are your views regarding the Pakistani market?
NS: I believe there is still lacking in broadband coverage, in order for broadband to be more pervasive we must look at different models in Pakistan. Countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Philippines have moved on to a prepaid model which is only capped on volume and there is no time bar the benefit of this is that there is low cost of ownership. So what happens with greater penetrations of broadband people are paying utility bills, people are setting up businesses, they are engaged in internet marketing, and then there is women empowerment and the possibility of creating one's own revenue stream.
According to PTA, the number of broadband users in the country is closer to two million, which as a percentage of the entire population is very miniscule. We are confident that the performance of connectivity in terms of bandwidth will create new economic activities because then communication becomes much easier.
We believe in bringing the latest technology into the country, we have taken several initiatives in providing better products.
For example on account of our partnerships we are pioneers in establishing computing platforms. The latest initiative by Intel is a new era of computing which is the Ultrabook, setting standards in how thin a product should, how long its battery life should be and smart computing infrastructure can be imbedded within it. In Pakistan there is potential for Ultrabooks's to become a mainstream product.
BRR: The world of IT is ever changing with cloud computing and in memory processing coming in, what do you think we will see from Intel in this regard?
NS: From a cloud computing perspective you have to look at the consumer who is the recipient of the service and the service provider that is delivering the cloud, so when we talk about Ultrabook, the cloud will recognise it as a well protected asset belonging to xyz consumer. If it's not a secure PC even the service provider will have doubts, so technology makes it possible for the service provider to seamlessly service the customer given the secure platform at the consumer side.
Our latest Zeon server platform ensures greater consolidation ratio, so for example the platform that existed six years from now you may have required 20 servers to service your need, where as now you only need one to service your needs. We are bringing innovation in cooling of servers, so in data centers we are working on a technology that submerges the hardware in oil which in turn makes the servers adapt to the environment without the need to be kept cool on a continuous basis, however this technology is still in the works.
The next five years we see fivefold more in the data centers segment that would require us to innovate on disk design and better material used on this hardware. We are employing our Solid Straight Drives (SSDs), these provide much greater throughput transfer rates than a conventional hard disk would, since it has no moving part it is flash based with NAN technology, this would increase the life of the machine given that it no longer has any moving parts and also enhances performance significantly.
BRR: What should consumers and the business community expect from Intel's new offering, the Ultrabook?
NS: Ultrabook's are lighter than 1kg which aids to the concept of laptops being more mobile. Intel has set out to ensure that the industry recognises mobility to be the most important factor. We have set standards with our international partners to use particular computing platforms to generate an effective replacement of your old PCs. We invested $300 million in this venture and after its implementation we saw a hockey stick of growth regarding shipments to all related manufacturers.
The features include 5-7 seconds of uptime, theft security where with the help of your service provider you can send a poison pill to your stolen device and when the system is on standby your key apps will still be working in the back drop which is the Intel smart technology. Out feature set provides a more holistic view, so all the way from security, speed and computer platform and the use of ultra low voltage processors, the device gives you optimal performance,
BRR: Please tell us about Intel's education programs in the country?
NS: We have three basic programs commissioned in the country, Intel Teach Program which is a skill development program for teachers. Since 2001, we have trained 320,000 in-service and pre-service teachers in more than 60 districts.
These trainings are undertaken in partnership with Ministries of Education and public institutions like the Punjab School Education Department. It is essentially a skill development program for teachers where we enhance their capability of transferring knowledge to students. We believe a lot of people in Pakistan don't have exposure to IT, they are either unemployed or under employed due to the lack of skills, there are also women in households who if get to know the use of IT tools will be much more empowered.
Intel Easy Steps is an adult IT literacy program it has rural, urban women, people who are either under employed or unemployed. We plan to improve their computer skills so they can enhance their skill set and do better for themselves.
Then we have Intel Science and Engineering Fairs (ISEF) where the primary focus is on expanding knowledge and interest in science in children grades 8-11. Each year, Intel Pakistan organises 50+ research coaching workshops at the national level to the benefit of 7000 students. Winners are sent to the US to participate in the International ISEF.